Summary

The Glorious Heresies opens with 15-year-old Ryan leading Karine D’Arcy, his girlfriend of three weeks, into his home, metaphorically leaving his boyhood behind as he anticipates having sex. The reader soon learns about Ryan’s abusive relationship with his father and his long-standing crush on Karine through a close, third-person narrator. The narrator conveys that Karine is the first person in Ryan’s life who did not “run off” or “[tell] anyone” after hearing of his abuse (7).

While looking around Ryan’s home, Karine notices a piano, once owned by Ryan’s deceased mother. Ryan wants to play for Karine, both to share something important to himself and to hopefully convince her to “let him fuck her right there on the sitting-room floor,” but ultimately decides to wait before revealing that part of himself to her (8).